Thursday, December 24, 2009

Happy Christmas Eve! And unto us a child is born...

As promised pictures of the wedding...although these are not my pictures, as I still have not managed to get mine onto disk, baby girl told me the bride had posted some on her facebook page so I down loaded to share a few with you. This is the bride and groom walking down the sand after their vows...

God did bless us with clear blue skies.

This is a picture of baby boy and I standing at the top of the landing getting ready to walk down to the beach...as I just wrote that I realized that I guess I need to stop calling him baby boy...he's a married man now...and my expectation of what that means would probably do me as much good to accept as him...and now it's Christmas eve, thankfully I am the only one up in my house right now because I feel so overwhelmed that I could just break down in a crying fit right now...in-laws are still here and everyday that passes their behavior gets worse such as the last visit and I'm going to sound horrible but "fight or flight" is in play and I could honestly just start running and never look back as I'm too exhausted for the fight which would be me throwing them on their can in the street! I told you I'm horrible!The stairs were a challenge to navigate in my red heels (red heals? black and white, baby girl about dropped over when she asked what I was wearing, she said, "mom is that appropriate?" I said, "if it's not I guess I'll just break the rules) and just about the third or fourth step down my right heel got caught behind the step, all I could do is laugh, if the groom hadn't caught me I would have tumbled to the bottom. Lucky for me the groom is very large and just the stead of his arm stopped me from going forward, I don't think anyone even noticed.

After the steps, then there was the sand, if it wasn't so chilly on the Pacific in December, and if my legs were in better shape, I swear I wouldn't have wore hose and kicked off the heals...no matter how hard I tried to walk on my toes the heals still sunk into the sand...actually, now that I think of it, I wore a short silk skirt, I should have worn a long one and went bare foot, but then again, Mitzi and I were in sweat shop mode so it's not like either of us had time to consider any part of pampering, let alone our wardrobe...we've decided however that this was our first event together as "Cherry Queens", so we we're under a slight learning curve and the next one we will be soooo, sooo much more enlightened on every account. (Honestly... given the challenges, God blessed us anyway and everything we touched just seemed to miraculously pull together beautifully, thank you God!)What is that weird look on my face?This is American Husband and baby girl getting ready to walk down to the beach, as AH was best man and baby girl was maid of honor...

If you notice, they were both crying already...actually, AH had started crying the night before at the rehearsal dinner during Mitzi's prayer. So funny to me that everyone was surprised by Mitzi's prayer, even Mitzi was surprised I had asked, which I meant to ask her sooner, she said, "You want me to say the blessing?" I assumed it would be a "give-in", not so thoughtful of me to not have given her a heads up at least the day before, but honestly with all of the chaos...still, it was a beautiful prayer because Mitzi is a "prayer warrior" which is I guess why I assumed of course she would ask blessing...(I had actually thought of doing it myself, as I knew AH would not get through it without crying, and I wasn't sure that I could either, so Mitzi was next in line..) still... everyone said thank you after and I heard whispers among the approx. 30 guest (that's a another story) that attended about what a beautiful prayer it was... and it was, which is why AH got emotional and never stopped crying until Saturday morning...totally caught me off guard, I knew he would cry during the ceremony, AH is just sentimental that way, he tears up at Hallmark commercials, but I never expected the flood of emotions that came out of him for almost 24 hours, or baby girl for that matter...None the less, thank you my dear beautiful Mitzi, just one more blessing I can count during this event.....

And now for the cake....the reception venue was actually really beautiful, to have a wall of windows to gaze out onto the Pacific really was dream like when I would stop and remember to appreciate it...

This was the top of the cake with the adirondack chairs, we again can thank "Mitzi" for building these amazing little chairs, I've told you before she's an amazing artist...she really is...she built the chairs and baby boy and baby girls BF painted them out on the deck of the "Cherry Cottage" we had rented. (Can't wait to show you those pics, and tell you that amazing story, just another blessing.)

The cake was ok...not my best work...but given all of the challenges that Mitzi and I endured during the week, it's actually amazing that it's even straight...Mitzi thought it looked like a "sand castle" and when I took a second look at the finished product I thought she was right...the bride had asked for champagne colored frosting so it lended to the look of a sand castle, and then...the best thing of all that we discovered was "edible glitter"...so fun and amazing and of course appropriate because we are "glitter love'n girls!" Remember the whole dilemma of the original cake pic I was given having brown sugar for sand...well, Mitz and I took matters into our own hands and edible glitter was so amazingly beautiful and fun! I highly recommend you try to find it and use it in your next cake or cookie decorating adventure!

This pic was taken before the wedding with guest just starting to arrive...as you can see, it was a breath takenly beautiful day, but don't let the blue skies fool you it was chilly enough to have worn mittens and most of the guest had their winter coats on....still a blessing though considering it was December in Oz.

This pic was taken during the ceremony.

Ooooh now the fun pics, here is the most adorable 3 yr old flower girl on the planet, "baby Arabella", I promise to know her is to love her and she is soooo smart and yummy you just want to bite her! And you can tell by the look on my son's face that she has him smitten and wrapped right around her baby finger!!!!

They had practiced with her and told her when she was walking she just needed to walk to Ryan...and you know the babies always steal the show...

And she did...at first she was hesitant and it took a couple of nudges from mom and dad...but as soon as she saw Ryan she was good...and then she remembered she had forgotten to drop the petals on the way down, so she stood there emptying her basket in front of Ryan which is what she is doing in the picture above...Oh, God bless my baby boy and the bride he has chosen that you would cause a change in her heart (and mine) and in her cause the miracle of being a godly woman and he a godly man, and that they may live a long life of happiness seeking your guidance and seeking the truth....

And God Bless each and everyone of you, I hope your Christmas is born with light, health and happiness...I am blessed by each and every one of you that stop by for a little chat...and the biggest miracle today, ok, maybe not the biggest miracle, but definitely a giggly happy note that Mitzi has finally figured out how to leave me a comment! Love you Mitzi...I will never be able to thank you enough for all of your love! Merry Christmas, give everyone a hug for me... XOKeke

Hi KeKe, sounds like you've been through some trying personal things here lately. I know it's hard when our children marry, and when it is at odds with our belief system it can be a very difficult situation. The photos are lovely and the cake is so beautiful and unique. You did a lovely job on it. Just wanted to say Merry Christmas and have a wonderful week!Christmas blessings,Debra

Well, you look beautiful and baby girl as well...I would actually have preferred her drink something else as well but good taste is everything. So in that case, you have the upper crust hand, so to speak....Merry Christmas! Sue

Hi Keke. These are such pretty photos. It looked like the day couldn't have been any more beautiful for a wedding on the beach. Everyone, A.H., Ryan, Mitzi and of course you look wonderful in pictures. I hope your getting lots of rest after all your hard work. The cake you made is absolutely beautiful!

Hi again~ The photos are beautiful- what a gorgeous backdrop! It sounds like there were many challenges, but it sounds like many were overcome as well and you looked at things in the best likght possible. Good for you! I hope you can find time to relax and unwind- houseguests and all- that's always it's own challenge isn't it? Take care!!!

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